Whoops. Yesterday my gf ran a 5k sponsored by a dog friendly brewery. She ran with our dog Kizzy. I waited at the brewery, drinking beer, from 11 am until she arrived.
It’s nice that you showed her your support.
Heh. I actually carried her bag of post-race stuff, and saved her a seat at the bar. The brewery is great. All runners got their first pint free (along with all the water they wanted). They also had dog water stations all along the course and at the end. Kizzy loved it.
That sounds like a great event! Glad you, your gf, and Kizzy had a good time.
The Focal Banger was excellent. I have never been disappointed with anything from the Alchemist.
Hate to say this but most American hops taste like cat piss, skunked or dank to me, so no American IPAs or hazys, thank you very much. And I’m not into the foofoo beers (I’m looking at you, you coconut chipotle brownie peanut butter Imperial Session kviek monstrosity). Well, I confess, a couple times a year I do try and generally enjoy sampling one. So, if you get rid of the IPA’s, the experimental brews, the ciders and seltzers, there isn’t a lot of choice left on the shelf.
Seattle has a ton of micro breweries, but my go to is the English Machine House Brewery with primarily cask beers.
For the first time in months, I got off my keister and brewed an American Blonde and English Mild for a work event. I also partigyled the grains into a very lightweight English bitter that I will “spruce” up with a tincture of spruce tips soaking in vodka.
That’s the only way to fly!
I like those cans and wish a lot of other beers used them. Sometimes I just want a couple of slugs of a cold one. Those cans keep the remaining relatively fresh until the next slug which could be hours or days away.
Oskar Blues can do no wrong!
All of you need to rate the beer you’ve had on Ratebeer.com. The brewers not only pay attention but it’s a useful tool for you to keep tabs on what beers you’ve had and how you liked them. Then if you come across a beer and you don’t remember if you’ve had it or not you can look it up and decide if you want it again. It’s saved me from trying beer that I previously thought was completely roint.
Of my over 1400 ratings I have only given 2 beers a perfect score and one of them was Dales Pale Ale!
Here is me trying Dales for the first time.
I’ve had Dale’s Pale-Tasty stuff.
Right now I’m sipping Hazy Big Ballard Imperial IPA from Red Hook. I’ve had the regular Big Ballard several times, and this variation compares quite favorably. A little creamier, a little less bite.
I’m enjoying a Belgian Abbey Ale . Leffe. Apparently since 1240 AD.
Found it in my corner store. $12 and change for the 6-pack.
Pretty tasty and a little creamy going down, a bit of an aftertaste that isn’t as good.
6.6% ABV. I would guess IBU < 10. Brown Glass.
And I am currently sipping Phaser Hazy IPA from Ecliptic Brewing. ABA 6.5, just fruity enough-loving it.
Our tastes are apparently polar opposites.
I generally don’t like IPAs as I don’t like high IBU. 45-55 being my upper limit.
I really dislike fruity beer.
When I walk into a brewery I know nothing about, I order their highest IBU beer. I often stick with it.
Where I start with Porters, Stouts, Red Ales or Bocks.
I generally prefer Ales over Beers. Though Märzen (Octoberfest), Bocks, Dunkels and Dark Lagers I usually enjoy. Blonde Ales are very hit or miss with me as are American Pale Ales.
I avoid fruits and IPAs.
But in general, I walk into a brewery and I’m looking for a flight as you never know when you’ll find a gem.
I know nothing at all about beer. I just dropped in to shake my fist at you for waking that danged earworm. Forty years at least it’s been sleeping peacefully, and you had to wake it up!
:shakes fist:
In the UK there is a beer subscription service called Beer52 that send you a box of 6,8, or 10 beers depending on your subscription level. Each month is a different theme. Last month it was Southeast England, next month is the Celtic nations, but this month was beers from Chile. I’ve only just dipped into the box but a good one yesterday was Mrs. Champion Oatmeal Stout from Vericcio brewery in Santiago. A very nice oatmeal stout that won a gold medal in its category at the World Beer Awards in 2019.
Over the weekend my local pub had Fuller’s ESB on which always goes really fast. Personally, I’ll have a go at anything from big dank IPAs to chewy barley wines and everything in between. The category I’m least keen on is sours except the aforementioned Rodenbach Grand Cru. Some are nice but some just seem to be going for shock and awe.
Another popular beer rating app is Untappd. I think tastes in beer is too subjective so I don’t bother entering scores but I check in each new beer. I’ve checked in 4896 unique beers and am well on track to hit 5000 this year.
One of the things I don’t like about living in New Jersey, it is very hard to get alcohol delivered for some dumb ass reason. Probably a “think of the Kids” thing. I’m always looking for beers I haven’t tried yet.
If you are ever in Portland Oregon I’ll take you to Belmont Station.
BELMONT STATION (belmont-station.com)
What a great selection.
We have a place nearby, they have about 100 taps but don’t do flights. WTF?
I still miss The Park, they had 80s different beers on tap and did do flights. I “went to the park for lunch” many a time. It was great. The barmaids knew me by name and would let me know when they got something new in.
I went over to a friend’s house this evening. Hadn’t been in touch with her for quite a bit, so did the usual catchings-up. She asked me if I wanted to split a beer with her and when I said “sure”, she went out to the den and came back with a couple of 4 ounce glasses…and when I saw the bottle I knew why.
Samuel Adams Utopias vintage 2014.
If I took all the best flavors from the top ten beers I ever sipped and put them in one beer…I would turn it down for a bottle of this.
Wow. Never heard of that!
This just in…
RIP Anchor Steam, the San Francisco Brew That Saved Craft Beer in America
Just announced the other day. (sniff sniff, sob) 
Hopefully someone will buy Anchor Brewing and save my beloved local beer.
More about Anchor Steam beer. In my baseball memorabilia room I have a 1.5L bottle of a commemorative run they did in 2014 for the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series.
So I still have some Anchor Steam beer left!
